no title

Editorial

Mayor Coleman: Let us help

Wait for commission report before hiring superintendent

About our Editorials

Dispatch editorials express the view of the
Dispatch editorial board, which is made up of the publisher, the president of
The Dispatch, the editor and the editorial-writing staff. As is the traditional newspaper
practice, the editorials are unsigned and intended to be seen as the voice of the newspaper.
Comments and questions should be directed to the
editorial page editor.

Also in Opinion

Subscribe to The Dispatch

Already a subscriber?
Enroll in EZPay and get a free gift!
Enroll now.

Sunday March 24, 2013 6:52 AM

Over the past several months, we’ve seen our community come together like never before behind
the cause of educating our children.

Late last year, City Council President Andy Ginther and I appointed the Columbus Education
Commission, a diverse, talented group of people from all walks of life.

The commission has been engaged in months of intense deliberation and an unprecedented community
outreach process in our neighborhoods. Next month, we expect the commission to produce
comprehensive recommendations for how Columbus City Schools, the city of Columbus and the entire
community should create new policies and new investments toward the goal of making Columbus the
best big city in America for educating kids.

I have no doubt these recommendations will be bold, thoughtful and consequential, reflecting our
community priorities. But the commission’s work will be undermined if we don’t have an outstanding
Columbus City Schools superintendent working arm in arm with the rest of the community to
re-imagine education in Columbus.

Education is the civil-rights movement of our time. Too many of our kids are seeing their
opportunities for success hang in the balance based upon where they live and the income level of
their families.

The children of Columbus City Schools need our help. Forty-seven percent of kids enrolled in the
district attend schools receiving a D or F grade by the Ohio Department of Education, while just 21
percent go to A or B schools. The district ranks near the very bottom statewide in terms of how
much a student learns in a given year.

State and federal investigations into allegations of student-data manipulation hang like a black
cloud over the district. The results threaten to further lower the academic-performance scores of
our schools, and administrators could face indictment.

Our schools are at a crossroads. If we continue along our current path, Columbus City Schools
could be designated for academic emergency, which would lead to state control of the district.

As Superintendent Gene Harris moves into retirement this June, we need to do more than just fill
her position with a replacement. We need an innovative, reform-minded superintendent who is aligned
with our community priorities as outlined in the forthcoming commission recommendations.

As it stands, the Columbus Board of Education is headed down the wrong path.

Late last year, Columbus Board of Education President Carol Perkins asked me and other leaders
of this community to help lead the search for a new chief executive for the district, and I eagerly
agreed. But Perkins never followed up. Instead, board members have plowed ahead with a process that
clearly is not aligned with anyone or anything but a self-imposed timeline.

One board member was quoted characterizing the superintendent search this way: “We have a set
schedule,” and that the board should continue its search “until you tell me absolutely no one wants
to come.”

Well, I am sure the board can find somebody to take the job. But we don’t want just somebody. We
want the best. We deserve a superintendent who can pass the test of alignment beyond the school
board, who is also in sync with our community priorities, with parents, teachers, elected
officials, unions, business leaders, the faith community and neighborhood leaders. Frankly, no
candidate can meet this test under the district’s current process.

If the board identifies a new superintendent through its current search, it will be setting that
person up for failure. Rather than unite behind the superintendent, our community likely will be
further divided.

The board should take a lesson from the Ohio State University, which, after facing NCAA
violations and sanctions, hired the best football coach in America, Urban Meyer, after a period of
competent leadership under an interim coach. Twelve and 0 one season later isn’t bad, is it?

Once the commission issues its recommendations, we will have a vision for education in Columbus
behind which our entire community can unite.

We must seek the best person in America to lead Columbus City Schools into the next decade. I
would be eager to help the school board lead that search. In the meantime, the district can hire an
able and qualified interim superintendent to replace Harris upon her departure until a permanent
superintendent is found.

I implore the Board of Education to take a breath, reconsider its current course and listen to
those throughout Columbus who believe we must have a unified, focused and thoughtful strategy for
finding the superintendent our district needs and our kids deserve.